Government spying: Democrats try to implement oversight of the White House's wiretapping.ON OCTOBER 17, the House of Representatives passed the RESTORE Act--an amendment to the surveillance law that civil libertarians have been assailing since August, when, in the hours before summer recess, House Democrats caved to White House demands and handed the president a six-month reign to spy on American citizens. At press time, the Senate version was still pending. House aides had doubted they could move any legislation that would survive a Bush veto before February 2008, when the August bill sunsets. At that point, a veto would kick off a vicious fight between the Congress and the White House, with both facing the high stakes High Stakes is a British sitcom starring Richard Wilson that aired in 2001. It was written by Tony Sarchet. The second series remains unaired after the first received a poor reception. of forcing back progress--if nothing's ultimately passed, the law reverts to the old, antiquated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that most agreed required at least a narrow update. The RESTORE Act does most things civil libertarians wanted it to do--except to get rid of a provision that may allow the government to spy on numerous Americans with a single warrant. At the same time, it maintains the provisions of the August amendment that modernized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by allowing agents to investigate foreign suspects through taps in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . The bill also requires the White House to release to Congress the details of its so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program--implemented after the Sept. 11 attacks--that did an illegal end-run around the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And it has won the support of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Democrat and civil liberties titan Rep. Jerrold Nadler Jerrold Lewis Nadler, sometimes called Jerry Nadler (born June 13, 1947) is an American politician from New York City. A liberal Democrat, Nadler represents New York's 8th congressional district, which includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City. , who called it "not perfect, but a good bill." If President Bush refuses to budge on the corrective measures Democrats ask him to sign, Congress will be left with three choices: They can renew the Protect America Protect America, Inc. is a privately held home security equipment and service provider that services all of the United States. In 1992 Thad Paschall founded Round Rock, TX, based Protect America, Inc. Act in the same form they passed it in August; they can grant Bush even greater spying power; or they can let the August bill lapse altogether. The last option would unleash a political firestorm fire·storm n. 1. A fire of great size and intensity that generates and is fed by strong inrushing winds from all sides: the firestorm that leveled Hiroshima after the atomic blast. 2. . Democrats would be accused of killing Americans, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will revert to its pre-August state, with all the well-documented inefficiencies and inadequacies that backslide back·slide intr.v. back·slid , back·slid·ing, back·slides To revert to sin or wrongdoing, especially in religious practice. back entails. --Brian Beutler is the Washington correspondent for the Media Consortium, a network of progressive media organizations, including ColorLines. |
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